Adir Mesika didn’t have a chance to propose to his girlfriend, Yuli, before he was murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7. So his jeweler father is making sure that any Israeli soldier who wants to marry is armed with the necessary diamond to do so.
Alon Mesika will provide free engagement rings to any soldier or reservist looking to pop the question.
Adir, 23, a former army commander, fought off terrorists in a shelter without any weapons after taking cover from the Nova festival. He saved the lives of his friends and beloved Yuli, said Adir’s dad.
“Adir’s Diamonds” was born in the wake of his tragic death.
“Because of Adir, now we will build homes and have many children in Israel,” said Alon. “This is how we win.”
Adir was born on the Upper East Side and lived in New Jersey before moving with his family to Israel as a 4-year-old. He had a passion for basketball, surfing, and jewelry-making — like his diamond-setter dad.
Early in 2023, Adir called his dad from his post-army travels in South America and declared he wanted to pursue the family business – launching the pearl-and-ocean-inspired Flow Jewelz company.
“I started teaching him and he was a quick learner,” said Alon, adding that his son’s first shipment was sent mere days before Oct. 7. “He was just getting started.”
About a month after the terror attack, the Mesika family – including Alon’s wife, Shiri, and three younger children – found a meaningful and personal way to honor Adir’s memory.
“I said, ‘let’s donate a diamond engagement ring to the first soldier who wants to propose and build a house,’” recalled Alon, who fired off a Facebook post, reading, “Call me if you want to propose. Come over and take a ring.”
His phone rang six minutes later.
Reservist Dor Zimel showed up to the family’s Even Yehuda home in the center of the country hours later “with his weapon, full of dust, after just coming from fighting,” recalled Alon, noting the young soldier was anxious to propose that very day, at sunset, to his girlfriend, Shir.
“I gave him a hug,” said Alon, who sent off the young romantic with a “simple and nice” solitaire diamond ring in a 14-karat gold setting. “He went close to the ocean and she said yes. They came back for l’chaim [celebration] that night.”
Thinking he did a mitzvah, or good deed, Alon felt good, but figured his job was done.
“Someone called the next day,” said Alon, who hated to break the news to the soldier that “I gave the ring away already.”
But something clicked in Alon. “I couldn’t say no. Every day they called.”
And a new mission was born.
“I just gave them rings.”
“Adir’s Diamonds” has now provided 116 rings to date, and seen five weddings take place so far.
The second-generation jeweler is now getting help from friends in the diamond exchange back in the States. They send stones and he sets them.
The project is changing the trajectory of solders’ lives. “They think, ‘Maybe it’s not the time yet.’ But because of what we do, it pushes them to propose.”
Alon kept in touch with his first “client,” Zimel, who was set to marry his fiancee earlier this year.
“I told him to come home, that it’s enough. He said it’s his last mission,” recalled Alon of the 27-year-old deputy company commander.
Zimel was killed in a Hezbollah attack in the north in April, about a month before the wedding.
“It’s the best of the best,” said Alon of the tragic loss of 700 IDF soldiers killed since Oct. 7.
As the first anniversary approaches, Alon has no plans to slow down.
“I will never stop. I’ll give rings as long as I can – for Adir. We’re building the new generation – that’s what we do.” His effort will even be featured in an upcoming original film by Aish called “October 7th: Voices of Pain, Hope, and Heroism” with an NYC premiere screening.
“A lot of rings have my tears” on them, he said.
